She consents to see him in the garden at night, if he can
climb over the wall, or manage to get in somehow. He does manage it.
All this appeals to her vanity and love of intrigue. She has a new
interest in life--and a secret. They have these night meetings often. By
and by the man begs the girl to run away with him. He says he will marry
her at once, of course. He's good-looking and seems to be rich; and he's
staying in the house of a Lord Somebody or Other, so she thinks he must
be of importance in the world. She herself is--just nobody, with hardly
a penny of her own, and only distant relatives who've put her in the
convent to get rid of the bother she made them. But when our heroine has
escaped in the most romantic fashion with her lover, she soon discovers
that he can't marry her, even if he wished, for he has a wife already.
And it's the wife who owns all the money. They don't live together, but
they are quite good friends, he and his wife, who's a common sort of
person, a beer-heiress or something like that. What do you think of our
story so far, Angelo? Isn't it a good plot?"
Angelo had been smoking continuously as his cousin talked, sending out
little quick puffs of smoke which, to those who knew him, betrayed
annoyance. And Idina knew him well.
"Do you want me to say what I really think, or to pay you compliments?"
he asked.
"What you really think, of course."
"Then, there's nothing new or original in your plot, to excuse
its--unpleasantness.
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